Undergraduate Course Descriptions for Fall 2012

This course examines the history of early America from the late 1500s to 1740. It begins with the meeting in North America of three groups of people – Europeans, Native Americans and Africans. By the end of the 1600s, decades of contact, exchange, cooperation, conflict and violence had fundamentally reshaped the landscape of eastern North America. By the 1700s the people who lived there were connected to one another and to the wider world by numerous ties of culture, trade and political allegiance. There were many conflicts — this was by no means a peaceful or a simple world. Through a mixture of primary and secondary sources, this course explores a variety of topics, including migration, trade and economic development, servitude and slavery, religion, culture and politics.

His 304-1 The United States, 1877 to World War I 1:00 MWF Bishop 107 Professor Elizabeth Payne

This course introduces students to the main themes and significant contours of American history from the end of reconstruction through the first world war. As such, it emphasizes national legislation and politics, but it also focuses on social and cultural history. Students should be prepared to switch perspectives between a chronological and a topical approach, realizing that both readings and lectures have been designed for breadth.
Grades are straightforward and will be based on a point system of 100. Each reading quiz will count 5 points for a total of 30 points. There will be three exams, each of which will count fifteen points, totaling 45 points. All quizzes and exams will be taken from students’ submitted samples. Finally, there will be a paper counting 25 points.
Tentative Reading List:

Janet Sharp Hermann, The Pursuit of a Dream
Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery
Margaret Bolsterli, Vinegar Pie and Chicken Bread
Michael Kazin, A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan
John Milton Cooper, The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt
Thomas Andrews, Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War

His 306-1 The United States Since 1945 1:00 MWF Bishop 112 Professor Michael Namorato

This course will examine American development after 1945, focusing on the political, economic, diplomatic, and social aspects. Students will be expected to stay informed of what is going on in America and the world today since this is also within the purview of the class.
Each student will be expected to take a Mid-Term and Final exam. Each student will also be expected to complete a number of short research projects individually and/or within a small group.
Texts for the course include the following:

His 307-1/Aas325 African American History to 1865 9:00 MWF Bishop 101 Staff

This course covers Black American history from West Africa to 1865, emphasizing the role of black leaders and their struggle against oppression.

His 307-2/Aas325 African American History to 1865 2:30 TTH Hume 101Staff

This course will help students to better understand the experiences of African peoples and the impact of colonization, the Middle Passage, and American slavery on the emergence of African American communities and culture. Critical to this course will focus on African backgrounds and traditions; the formation of African American communities and culture; and agency and resistance. Some of the major themes that will be engaged in this course will deal with the historical, political and social aspects of black life.

This course surveys American Indian history from the period before European contact to the 1850s, focusing on how the continent’s indigenous people negotiated dramatic changes in their lives. Using an ethnohistorical methodology, which considers the writings of anthropologists and archaeologists as well as historians, students will develop an understanding of and appreciation for Native and non-Native cultures, federal policies and local adaptations, systems of domination, and efforts at resistance. The course will begin by examining indigenous creation stories and the migration of Paleo-Indians to the Americas. Students will explore pre-contact Native North America and gain an understanding of the diversity of American Indian societies and cultures. The course will move on to discuss the different contact zones established between Indians, the Spanish, the French, and the English. Students will examine how Native people interacted with the newcomers, formed alliances, and engaged in warfare and trade. Following the American Revolution, the United States formally recognized the political status of Native nations through treaties. Nevertheless, Americans worried about the ramifications of having sovereign Indian nations within the new country’s territorial boundaries. Students will learn how Indians responded to “civilization programs” and other efforts to end their tribal identities. Students will explore the connections between American expansion and Indian removal, and how eastern Indians dealt with threats to their lands and resources. The class will end in the decades after Indian removal by examining how Native people rebuilt their lives in Indian Territory, and how Indians further to the west managed the arrival of the first American settlers to the region. Students will be evaluated on their participation in class discussions, weekly reading quizzes, three 3-4 page papers based on the assigned readings, a midterm, and a final exam.

Week 1: Thinking about American Indian History
Week 2: Creations, Migrations, Coalescence, and Ethnogenesis
Week 3: Spanish Encounters: Entradas, Missions, and Revolts
Week 4: French Encounters: Jesuits and Fur Traders
Week 5: English Encounters: Slavery, Alliances, and Trade
Week 6: Indians and the Colonial Wars
Week 7: Indians and the American Revolution
Week 8: Lewis and Clark: The American Entry into the Plains
Week 9: “Civilization” Programs, Christianity, and Slavery
Week 10: Tribal Nations and Constitutions
Week 11: Middle Grounds and Spirited Resistance
Week 12: The Indian Removal Act and the Marshall Trilogy
Week 13: Removals
Week 14: Indian Territory and the Aftermath of Removal
Week 15: Americans and Indians in the West

Throughout this semester we will explore the roots of slavery (broadly), why it arose on the North American continent, how Africans and African-Americans survived and resisted the institution. Furthermore, we will examine why a powerful anti-slavery movement gradually started to develop around the time of the American Revolution and how it grew in the decades post-Revolution. Finally, we will explore the complex forces that led to slavery’s demise in the mid-nineteenth century. As an institution, slavery had an impact on ideologies surrounding race, gender, medical care, property, and political movements. One of the major objectives of this course is to gain a better understanding of the intellectual history of slavery, race, and racism. We will utilize not only some of the most interesting primary and secondary texts available on slavery, but also will consider film versions of the institution and the experience, as well as relevant methodological approaches. Major topics of discussion will be: trade; demography; culture; labor; gender; resistance, and freedom.

Aas 440/His 328 is a historical survey of African Americans and their roles in various sports beginning with black participation in the late 19th century and chronicling that involvement into the 21st century. Some of the major themes that will be examined include: black jockeys, black cyclist, and black baseball in the late 19th century; black participation in football, golf, and boxing in the early 20th century; the development of color barriers in various sports; black teams during the age of segregation; the integration of various sports; and future involvement of African Americans in sport.

Course Requirements:
Each student is responsible for (1) class attendance and class participation, (2) weekly reading assignments, three papers, a midterm exam, and (3) a final exam.

Method of Determining Final Course Grade:
Three Papers–Due September 11, October 23, & November 27: 45%
Mid Term Exam–Thursday September 27: 25%
Final Exam–Tuesday December 4, at noon: 30%

Required Books:
Balf, Major A Black Athlete, A White Era, and the Fight to be the World’s Fastest Human Being
Donovan, Hard Driving The Wendell Scott Story The American Odyssey of Nascar’s First Black Driver
Leslie and Burnett, Don’t Let the Lipstick Fool You
Ross, Outside the Lines

Assignments:
The reading assignments are listed on your “Schedule of Assignments” sheet. Be sure to read each one in full BEFORE the date listed.

The course will examine the post-World War II black struggle for equal rights, with a special emphasis on the southern movement. Topics covered will range from the NAACP’s campaign against school segregation in the 1940s and 1950s to the effects of the Voting Rights of 1965 in the late 1960s and will include Martin Luther King, Jr., the sit-ins and freedom rides, the role of churches in the movement, and white opponents of the movement.
Each student will write a brief paper on each of the books assigned. Two tests and a final examination will be required.

This course will examine political, economic, and cultural developments from Indian settlement through contemporary society.

His 332-1 The South in the 20th Century 4:00 TTH Bishop 105 Professor Darren E. Grem

This course explores the daily lives, political struggles, cultural practices, and partisan affiliations of “southerners” (however defined) from roughly 1912 to 2012. In-class lectures provide a framework for understanding the course of southern history in the twentieth century, focusing on racial segregation and southern migrations, World War II, the civil rights movement, the rise of the Sunbelt economy, the emergence of a “two party South,” and globalization. Additionally, in-class case studies of specific historical figures, issues, and events complicate the broad outline provided via the course’s lectures and complement the course’s readings, which also supply additional perspectives about who or what made the modern South a place of national and international influence.

No exams are required in the course, although students must write two book reviews of 3-5 pages in length and take a quiz for a third book. For an end-of-term assignment, students will write an 8-10 page paper that addresses a particularly pressing issue or debate raised by the course, building their conclusions from the course’s lectures, case studies, readings, and other resources.

His 333-1 The United States in the Era of the Civil War
9:30 TTH
Bishop 107
Professor April Holm

The Civil War was a pivotal moment in American political history and a central experience in the lives of people who lived through it. The war and its aftermath resolved unanswered questions about the nation’s future, set the United States on course to becoming a modern state, and redrew the boundaries of American citizenship. It also defined a generation, changed countless ordinary lives, and bequeathed a new set of unresolved questions to subsequent generations.

This course begins with the aftermath of the Mexican-American War in 1848 and the conflicts over slavery, abolition, and westward expansion that brought the nation to war in 1861. We will focus on the experience of the war itself for Americans both North and South, and enslaved and free—on the home front, on the battlefield, and during emancipation. We will then examine the profound challenges that faced Americans as they sought to rebuild and reshape the nation during the years of Reconstruction. The course ends with an evaluation of the political and cultural reunion of the North and South: how it was accomplished, what it resolved, and what questions remained unanswered as Americans entered a new age shaped by the Civil War and Reconstruction.

His 337-1 History of Religion in the South 9:30 TTH Bishop 103 Professor Charles Wilson

This class will trace the development of religion in the American South. It will begin with the colonial era, examine the rise of evangelicalism and how that tradition became the dominant one in the South, trace the emergence of the sectional conflict between North and South and the role of religion in it, discuss the religious meanings of the Civil War and its aftermath, examine the expansion of evangelical churches after the war, consider the role of Catholics and Jews in the South, study developments in the early
twentieth century, and conclude with religion’s role in the civil rights movement and the rise of the Religious Right. The course will also look at religion’s role in such creative expressions as music, literature, and films.

Four books are required reading. We will discuss each book in class and there will be a short quiz on each. There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. The other requirement is an oral history project, based around religion and culture.

Texts:
Christine Heyrman, Southern Cross
Paul Harvey, Redeeming the South
Edward Larson, Summer for the Gods
Will Campbell, Brother to a Dragonfly

His 338-1/Gst338 Masculinities and Femininities in American History 1:00 MWF Bishop 101 Professor Sheila Skemp

Men and women are biologically different in that they possess different reproductive systems. Our understanding of the meaning or significance of that difference, however, has changed over time, and varies according to race, class, ethnicity, and region. This course will examine and try to explain the changes in ideals of gender identity—views of what were masculine or feminine traits—throughout American history and across race, class and ethnic lines.

Requirements:
There will be a one hour exam and a cumulative final exam.
Students will write four “reaction papers” (2-3 pages in length) based on assigned reading.
They will also write one 10 page research paper on a topic of their choice.

Reading:
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte Temple
David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett
Sonya Michel and Robyn Muncy, Engendering America, 1865-Present
Plus a variety of short readings placed on Blackboard.

His 340-1 Science in the Modern World 11:00 TTH 113 S. Res College Professor Theresa Levitt

Science and technology have become defining features of modern life. This course examines how this came to be, and how in turn the conditions of modern life have shaped man’s views on the natural world. It will cover many topics, including:

the Scientific Revolution, during which new models of exploring nature were proposed in both the physical and life sciences

the place of science in the industrializing, secularizing world of the nineteenth century, focusing particularly on cosmology and evolutionary biology

the shift from classical to modern physics, and the impact of this shift on wider culture

the development of nuclear weapons and the role of scientists in public life

the genetic revolution and its implications

Several questions will interweave this material: Does our knowledge of the world depend on the conditions in which we create it? Can science be separated out from the rest of human cultural activity? How has science come to play the role that it does in our lives?

His 347-1 Cinema and Revolution in 20th Century Europe
4:00 TTH
Bishop 103
Professor Joshua First

As visual culture historian Nicholas Mirzoeff claimed, “Modern life takes place on screen.” This statement is particularly apt in describing how cinema (along with television, and now the internet) transformed the experience and consumption of revolution during the 20th century. Indeed, revolution truly became cinematic and, later, televisual during the last 100 years. In the cinematic age, revolution entered the peaceful space of everyday life as never before, and each were subsequently transformed in the process of reproducing and distributing motion pictures of conflict and its meanings.
Beginning with the Russian Revolution in 1917, cinema made possible the realistic representation of revolution on the screen, and transformed commemoration of revolution into an aspect of consumer culture and popular entertainment. The events of May 1968 in France represented a further extension of the celebratory nature of consuming revolution on the screen, and new technologies such as the hand-held Steady-Cam introduced the possibility for a more direct relationship between the agents of revolution and its audiences. Today, of course, we are more accustomed to viewing revolution live on our television screens or on Youtube, and the most recent example of Egypt offers new possibilities for understanding revolution as performance along with the nature of the televisual experience. Moreover, when revolution now appears on film, we expect a more despondent understanding of the event, suggesting that spectators now understand revolution within the context of nostalgia and failed dreams. Along with the examination of key cinematic, televisual and new media texts through in-class and home screenings, this course will study problems of spectatorship and revolutionary agency.

The course will be divided among the following three topics (with possible film choices):
Revolution on Film
Vsevolod Pudovkin, The End of St. Petersburg (USSR, 1927)
Robert Reinert, Nerves (Germany, 1919)
Sergei Gersimov, And Quiet Flows the Don (USSR, 1957)
Warren Beaty, Reds (USA, 1981)

In seminar and lecture format, this course surveys the major events and trends of the Early and High Middle Ages. It therefore covers European history from the “decline and fall” of the Roman empire to the fourteenth century, which, by various reckonings, begins the Late Middle Ages or Renaissance. The relationship between medieval thought and political action receives special attention. Students who successfully complete this course will have gained an elementary knowledge of Europe’s seminal millennium.

Since both lectures and class discussion presuppose that the student has done the reading assigned for the week, the mid-term and final exam will therefore hold the student accountable for all the reading, which is the essential component of each class. Class discussion is a key to understanding this reading and not a substitute for it.

Required Texts:
Andrea, The Medieval Record (1997)
Tierney, Western Europe in the Middle Ages (1999 6th ed.)
Tierney, The Crisis of Church and State (1050-1300) (1988)
Tierney, The Middle Ages 1 (1999 6th ed.)

Essays:
Research demonstrable in a cogent essay is required. Students should choose a topic capable of thoughtful examination (in no less than five pages and no more than twenty pages) and circumscribed (on a separate title page) by title and subtitle.

This course will examine the religious, cultural, political, and social developments in Europe for the period 1517-1648. We will examine the impact of the so-called magisterial Protestant reformers, such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, as well as the importance of the Radical, Anglican, and Catholic Reformations. This course will also touch on themes such as witchcraft, the growth in monarchical power, and women and the family in early modern Europe.

Assigned Readings:
Tentative reading assignments include:
Roland Bainton, Here I Stand! A Life of Martin Luther
Diefendorf, Barbara. The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre: A Brief History with Documents
Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village
Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision
Brian Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, 3rd edition
Ozment, Steven. The Burgermeister’s Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town

Paper Assignments and Exams:
One mid-term and a final exam. Students will be required to write either two shorter papers (5-7 pages) based on the required readings or one longer paper (10-15 pages) on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor.

The course examines important political, social and intellectual developments in early modern Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. These developments will be investigated on a pan-European basis. We will start with the models of Absolutism in France and Britain and later transformations of and challenges to Absolutism throughout Europe. In addition we will look at the origins of the
Enlightenment and its development as an intellectual and cultural movement. Through the reading of political writings, plays and reform tracts we will consider the transformative impact of this broadly based movement throughout the 18th century.

Readings may include:

James B. Collins, The State in Early Modern France
Mark Kishlansky, A Monarchy Transformed, Britain 1603-1714
John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
Gotthold Lessing, Nathan the Wise
Jacob, ed. The Enlightenment, A Brief History with Documents
David Williams, ed. The Enlightenment

His 383-1 History of the Muslim World, from the origins to the Middle Ages
2:30 TTH
Bishop 103
Professor Nicolas Trépanier

This course offers a survey of the history of the Muslim world, from its origins to the thirteenth century. We will pay particular attention to the context in which Islam was born and the life of its founder Muhammad; the “golden age” of the life of the Prophet and his immediate successors, which continues to inform current debates such as the Shi’i/Sunni divide; the rapid establishment of a united Muslim empire ranging from Spain to India and its ultimate disintegration; and the interaction between Islam and the Christian world through intellectual interactions, along frontiers and during the Crusades.

The course will follow a chronological approach to the main events in the history of the Muslim peoples while, in parallel, exploring a number of key themes in the social, intellectual and artistic history of the region. Themes discussed will include Islam as a religion and social phenomenon, Islamic law, Sufism (Islamic mysticism), identity and ethnicity, literature, philosophy and science.

This course focuses on the Chinese people’s struggle to transform the world’s oldest dynastic order and to create a revolutionary society during the 20th century. The Communist revolution of 1949, within the limits posed by history, ecology and geo-political realities, has remade China. The leading question for this course is to ask what exactly has changed over the course of the revolution(s). We will place the major stress on the rise, evolution, and impact of Chinese communism, with particular attention to changes in China since the founding of the PRC in 1949. The vast and still controversial nature of the revolution may thus enhance students’ understanding of historical interpretation, historical change and continuity. First person accounts, classic and revisionist scholarly works, literature, music and film are used to explore the Chinese revolution. Background knowledge of China welcomed, but not assumed. All that is required is an open mind and willingness to learn about other peoples and cultures. You are reminded of the wisdom of Kongfuzi (Confucius): “learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is intellectual death.”

His 396-1 Modern Japan
11:00 TTH
Bishop 112
Professor Noell Wilson

This course examines the emergence of modern Japan from the late 1500s to the present. Class lecture and discussion will analyze the historical background from which modern Japan emerged, identify the principal political and cultural developments in her transition to a modern industrial society, explore the rise and fall of Japan’s colonial empire and examine her emergence as a major world power today. Intertwined with analysis of events, people and ideas, we will consider key theoretical debates on the meaning of “modernity” and how these analytical frameworks influence our understanding of Japan’s past and present.

His 400-1 Undergraduate Research Seminar: US History
Sports Scandals in Modern Times
4-6:30 W
Bishop 333
Professor Michael Namorato

There is little doubt that Americans are a sports-minded people. Whether it is baseball, basketball, football, boxing, the Olympics, or whatever other competition comes to mind, we Americans are enthusiastic supporters. Americans are so caught up in sports that they treat the athletes almost like heroes. We watch everything they do, listen to everything they say, and purchase whatever wares they are “hawking” at any particular time. Yet, these very same sports heroes oftentimes get into trouble. While Americans might be disappointed in this type of behavior, it doesn’t stop us from watching sports, going to the games, or examining every detail of any competitive event.

Since 1900, sports scandals have become not only a mainstay of American life, but they also seem to be expected by us. From Jim Thorpe in the Olympics to the Steroid Era in Baseball, we Americans have become engrossed in the bad behavior that our “athletic heroes” get involved in. This seminar will study this phenomenon in detail.

The seminar will examine sports scandals in modern times, focusing especially on American sports. The class will study the 1919 Black Sox scandal, the horrific stories of boxing set ups,
Broadway Joe Namath and Bachelor’s Three, Charlie Hustle or Pete Rose, and the Game of Shadows or the Steroid Era in baseball and professional sports’ handling of concussions. Nor will the class just focus on the athletes. It will also examine how even the referees get involved in cheating as in the case of the recent NBA disaster. Finally, the seminar will examine college sports as well.

This is one of the history senior capstone seminars whose primary objective is to instruct students about how to write a 25-page research paper. Paper topics will have to deal with the history of the Cold War in International Perspective, including but not limited to: the Postwar Settlement; the Origins of the Cold War; Reconstruction; the Berlin Crises; Decolonization; the “Third World” between the Superpowers; the Cuban Missile Crisis; Soviet-Chinese relations; the Korean War; Vietnam; Nuclear Deterrence; Détente; Protest Movements of the 1960s and 1970s; Terrorism; the Crisis of Communism; the 1989 Revolutions in Eastern Europe. The paper should be based both on primary and secondary sources. (N.B.: the paper cannot deal primarily with American domestic policies or issues, but must center instead on events in other parts of the world. US intervention in and/or relations with any country during the Cold War is an acceptable approach as long as non-American points of view and sources are included).

During the first five weeks of classes students will become acquainted with adequate research topics, learn to write footnotes and a bibliography correctly, and to distinguish primary from secondary sources. We will also have a quiz on David Painter, The Cold War: An International History. Students will prepare PowerPoint presentations on chosen topics (instructor’s approval required). The main purpose of these presentations will be to formulate questions on the various topics and thus help guide each individual student towards the choice of an appropriate research topic. The instructor will review PowerPoint files one or two days before the presentation due date. Students should speak clearly and loudly enough to be heard and understood by their classmates.

His 450-2 Undergraduate Research Seminar: European History
The First World War: Combatants and Civilians in a Global Conflict
1-3:30 TH
Bishop 333
Professor Susan R. Grayzel

As the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War approaches, our knowledge of the experiences of the combatants and non-combatants who faced this first, modern total war continues to expand. In this seminar, we will begin by reading some general histories of the war, ones that address its origins as well as its impact. This will set up the context in which we will explore some of the writings produced by participants during and after the conflict. We will consider the effects of the war mainly on Europeans, but look at the specific circumstances of men, women, and even children. This broad introduction will enable students to focus and write papers on potentially any aspect of the First World War.

In addition to participating actively in class discussions of primary and secondary sources, students will have opportunities to develop their powers of oral and verbal communication and critical analysis as they prepare and execute a research paper (20-25 pages) on a topic relevant to the issues raised by this seminar.

His 490-1 Undergraduate Research Seminar in History
Pirates of the Early Modern Caribbean
1-3:30 TH
Bishop 326
Professor Jesse Cromwell

Perhaps no other historical group has been as misunderstood or mythologized as pirates in the early modern Caribbean. In this course, we will study the trajectory of Caribbean piracy from its infancy as an exploratory pursuit, to its use as a major military arm of Spain’s rivals, and finally its suppression as European states consolidated their overseas possessions. Class discussions will consider such important questions as: how did buccaneering shape the geopolitics of imperial powers from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries? Were pirates the terrorists of their age, the oppressed flotsam and jetsam of the Caribbean, or some mix of the two? And how did the Spanish populace they raided respond to such affronts?

The first part of this course will involve common readings on piracy meant to establish a breadth of knowledge on the subject. General histories of the topic and a few primary sources also will help students to select a research topic. In the second part of the course, students will research and write a substantial research paper on any aspect of piracy or its bordering maritime histories that interests them (with instructor approval). This part of the course will consist mainly of a few structured group meetings to discuss research problems and individual, weekly consultations with the professor.

Major course readings may include:
Alexander Exquemelin, The Buccaneers of America
Clarence Haring, The Buccaneers of the West Indies in the XVII Century
Kris Lane, Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500-1750
Fabio López-Lázaro, trans., The Misfortunes of Alonso Ramírez: The True Adventures of a Spanish-American with 17th-century Pirates.
Marcus Rediker, Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age
Robert C. Ritchie, Captain Kidd and the War against the Pirates